One technique to communicate the data output of a computer is to present it on a computer display. The compute:. display may be in the form of a cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor or liquid crystal display (LCD) flat panel screen. The visual clarity of the information on a computer display is a function of computer display parameters, such as brightness and contrast. Computer display parameters are affected by ambient light. Some color televisions use a light sensor to linearly increase the brightness of a color television picture for each linear increase in ambient light.
Computer users have a wide variety of preferences regarding computer display parameters. It would be highly desirable to accommodate each user's computer display preferences while simultaneously accounting for ambient light conditions. That is, it would be highly desirable to automatically control computer display parameters in response to a combination of ambient light conditions and a set of user-specified preferences.
The clarity of information on a computer display is especially important in the context of computers used for desktop publishing. In such applications, it is desirable to manipulate the color of an image appearing on a computer display and then have the image on the computer display accurately reproduced on paper. Unfortunately, this is a difficult undertaking. A computer display generates color additively, in contrast to printed media, which reflects light and thereby generates light subtractively. Consequently, an image on a computer display does not respond to ambient light in the same way as an image on paper. Thus, color modifications made to an image appearing on a computer display will not directly translate into the same color modifications on the image appearing on paper. It would be highly desirable to provide a mechanism to tailor individual additive color (red, green, and blue) preference values used on a computer display. The color preference values could then be used to accurately represent how an image appearing on a computer display will ultimately appear on paper.